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Atef Safadi/European Pressphoto Agency
JERUSALEM — The Syrian armed forces fired antiaircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes that had struck targets deep in Syria early Friday, in what appeared to be the most serious clash between the two militaries since the start of the Syrian civil war six years ago.
The Syrian Army’s General Command asserted that its forces downed one of four Israeli aircraft that conducted operations around the ancient city of Palmyra, and hit another, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. The Israeli military denied that assertion, saying in a statement that “at no point was the safety of Israeli civilians or the I.A.F. aircraft compromised,” referring to the Israeli Air Force.
Activists opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad ridiculed the Syrian Army’s assertion, sharing a post on social media showing the “evidence”: a photograph of a paper plane, singed at the edges, with crude drawings of a Star of David on its wings.
A few months ago, Syria claimed, falsely, to have downed an Israeli warplane and a drone with surface-to-air missiles during a border clash.
This time, however, the Syrian missiles set off Israeli air raid sirens and aerial defense systems in the Jordan Valley, and the Israeli military said its Arrow air defense system had intercepted one of the missiles that appeared to be heading toward Israeli territory — the first confirmed operational use of that antimissile system.
While the Israeli aircraft may have escaped unscathed, the sirens and explosions served to thrust Israel’s yearslong shadow war in Syria uncomfortably into the limelight.
Israel has repeatedly declared its neutrality in the struggle between Mr. Assad of Syria and rebel forces. At the same time, Israel has been carrying out a covert campaign to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syrian territory to Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite organization that is aiding Mr. Assad, and against which Israel fought a fierce monthlong war in 2006.
While Israel has made no secret of its policy of acting to prevent such transfers of weapons, it had thus far assiduously refused to confirm or deny involvement in any particular strikes, preferring to maintain ambiguity in the hope of lowering the pressure on the other side to retaliate.
The only strikes Israel had been willing to acknowledge carrying out were those against Syrian positions near the frontier on the Golan Heights in retaliation for spillover from the Syrian civil war into Israeli-held territory.
The Israeli military did not elaborate on the precise location or nature of the weapons stores it struck on Friday, either, but the sirens and explosions heard by civilians in the Jordan Valley — and even in parts of Jerusalem — demanded some sort of an explanation.
The Israeli military stated laconically, but unusually, that its warplanes had “targeted several targets in Syria.”
SANA, citing a statement from the Syrian Army’s General Command, said the strikes had hit a military site near Palmyra, in the eastern countryside of Homs Province. Describing the incursion as a “blatant Israeli act of aggression,” the statement accused Israel of acting to support Islamic State “terrorist gangs” to raise their morale in their fight against the pro-Assad forces and divert attention from Syrian Army victories.
